When travelling behind slow vehicles, drivers get frustrated and follow more closely than they should. This is known as tailgating and can lead to rear-end collisions or other accidents. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, tailgating accounts for 23 percent of all motor vehicle accidents and crashes with 2000 deaths and 950000 injuries.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials states that it takes alert drivers approximately two seconds to see a roadway hazard and react to it. The more space a driver allows between his/her vehicle and the vehicle ahead, the more time the driver has to see a hazard and react safely. Best way for the driver to avoid tailgate accidents is to create a cushion by keeping at least 2 seconds between his/her vehicle and the vehicle ahead. In poor driving conditions this can be increased to 4 seconds to give sufficient stopping time. A system to alert the user in case of tailgating possibility can add a buffer of extra 2 seconds for it to detect a vehicle ahead within the accident range and alert the driver. Current methods available provides a static table to find the safety zone without considering user characteristics/parameters, vehicle characteristics/parameters (such as weight, dimensions, and maintenance history) and characteristics/parameters of the driver of the vehicle ahead and their vehicle characteristics/parameters.
Therefore, there is a need for improving the current methods and provide better way for drivers to avoid tailgating incidents.